Boldwerks invests in itself with West End purchase

Thursday

PORTSMOUTH – Boldwerks, a creative services agency celebrating its 10 anniversary, is investing in its future by investing in the city’s West End.

After several years in downtown Portsmouth space it leased at the corner of State and Middle streets, it has purchased a commercial condominium at 871 Islington St.

The investment by Boldwerks is another example of the burgeoning residential and commercial investment in Portsmouth’s West End.

“It’s showing that we’re making an investment, that we’re planning on being here for the long haul, and making sure that we can provide for our clients,” said Matthias Roberge, Boldwerks co-founder and its creative director.

The property at 871 Islington St. is part of the former sprawling Morley Button Factory, erected in 1910, ultimately becoming the largest manufacturer of shoe buttons in the world. This particular building is now home to 14 residential condos and 11 artisan/commercial units. Boldwerks owns Suite L5.

“We’re excited about our new place and are looking forward to seeing and meeting all our new neighbors,” said Roberge in announcing the purchase. “The West End has had a lot of eyes on it over the last 12 to 18 months and is seeing more and more activity as the next ‘hot spot’ in Portsmouth. We’re happy to be a part of that growth and look forward to adding to the creative culture of the West End.”

The company had known for two years that its original location at 477 State St. was being sold, giving co-founders Roberge and Adam Kaufmann time for due diligence on a new home.

“We love Portsmouth and, obviously, we wanted to buy a spot in Portsmouth. But, realistically, we didn’t think that was going to happen,” said Roberge.

They looked in Dover and Newmarket, aware of commercial properties that came across on their email alerts. “I saw this and the listing didn’t look like much,” said Roberge, noting its unfinished look. “We had to see past that and see what the potential could be as far as the commercial use of the space in the building itself.”

They are proud to be the first company in the commercial space and see themselves as influencers of how to harmoniously combine the commercial space downstairs with the residential space upstairs.

“We could envision how to help guide the condo association in terms of how to utilize the space yet not interfere with upstairs,” said Kaufmann.

As it rolls into its 10th year, the company is recharged with the move and is setting its sights on the future.

“From the marketing perspective, the writing services that we’ve offered has expanded exponentially,” said content director Chris Hislop. “We do a lot of retainer work for clients and handle all their copy needs. That seems to be a pretty decent shift in the way the company has evolved. We’ve built that up, and people have taken notice and are interested in that kind of work.”

Kaufmann noted that manufacturing companies especially are interested in marketing to get word out to the public about the kind of work they do.

“The manufacturing industry needs to market,” said Kaufmann. “There’s competition now, and a lot of these niche manufacturing companies need an outside perspective not only to sell their product but to write the content in a way that somebody who’s not in it every day can understand it.”

Roberge added: “We immerse ourselves in their business, and by doing that we really get a good understanding of what their client is and who they’re talking to and how we can message that effectively.”

For a company with assets that are more intellectual and online, the purchase of the condo gives the company a hard asset that they may want to broker in 10 to 15 years as founders Kaufmann and Roberge think about the next phase of their lives and future retirement. “Being a small business,” said Kaufmann, “it’s smart to own real estate.”

Portsmouth’s West End has attracted a lot of developer attention in the past few years. Chinburg Properties in Newmarket has taken up several projects to redevelop the former Frank Jones beer brewing buildings into mixed uses of residential and commercial. It is also building a new apartment building near the plaza that hosts the Hannaford supermarket and other retailers.

Todd Hudson, owner broker of Red Post Realty, is another business owner who sees the value in the West End. So much so, not only did he keep is real estate business there, he bought a house there. For him, it’s a neighborhood where he can walk anywhere he needs to go – to work, to his daughter’s school, to grocery shop, to get a prescription, to get a beer or something to eat.

“You have a closer sense of community in this end of town,” said Hudson, who moved his Red Post Realty in June from its former location on Islington Street to one of the Chinburg buildings at 110 Brewery Lane.

“This area of town is totally like a throwback of what Portsmouth, quote/unquote, was,” added Hudson. “The nice thing is the development here is going up, it’s not going out, which is great. The most viable way to grown a municipality, as we’ve seen in every major city, is to go up. It’s so much more cost effective. These are gorgeous units and they're slightly more cost effective than you can get anywhere else.”

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